Tag Archive: anarchism

There is a widespread, growing and committed resistance movement happening in US prisons across the nation. This movement is not going away, and with more outside support and national coordination, it could be powerful enough to reshape not only the US prison system, but the entire society.

At the time of this writing thirty prisoners at Ohio State Penitentiary, the supermax prison in Ohio are recovering from a hunger strike that has lasted over 30 days. Prisoners in Georgia, accused of leading the largest prison work stoppage in US history in 2010 are on hunger strike demanding relief from torture conditions they’ve been subjected to in solitary confinement as reprisal for their non-violent protest. The Free Alabama Movement (FAM) has been dealing with threats, beatings and lockdowns they’ve been subjected to in reprisal for the mass work stoppages that shut down three Alabama facilities for weeks in January of 2014.

The above examples are only the most coordinated and best publicized of these protests. Many prisoners see individual acts of courage and resistance as necessary for their identity and survival. When the country locks up as large a portion of its population as the US does, prisoner protests are inevitable and almost constant. (more…)

After months of labor and coordination, we are proud to present our most ambitious effort yet. To Change Everything is a new multimedia overview of the anarchist project, updated for the 21st century. It is a primer for the curious, a polemic for the entrenched, a point of departure for everyone who longs for another world.

To Change Everything includes a free full-color 48-page print publication, a video by Submedia.tv, a responsive website featuring the text in 6 languages (with 14 more to come), and a sticker and poster campaign. Collectives in 19 countries across five continents have prepared two dozen different versions of the project, each tailored to match the local context.

Order copies to give out at events—distribute them around your neighborhood, college campus, community center, or workplace—leave one as your calling card when you interrupt business as usual. Put the sticker up on public transportation and anywhere else people might notice it. Circulate the website and video online, too!

DURHAM — Hundreds of protesters filled downtown Durham on Tuesday to condemn the grand jury process in Ferguson, Missouri, which failed to indict Police Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of teenager Michael Brown.

But while protestors shouted about a show of solidarity with the residents of Ferguson, there appeared to be no unity between two separate groups who came to downtown to voice their anger over the grand jury’s decision.

One group gathered on the CCB Plaza and used spoken word and other forms of artistic discourse to express themselves.

“We want to show solidarity with the people of Ferguson,” said Eric Jefferson, a graduate student at N.C. Central University, who said he is part of a group that calls itself Black Is. “This is part of life. Everybody is part of the struggle whether they realize it or not.” (more…)

#30: Anarchism in Chile, Part II – The Ex-worker keeps our eyes to the south as we continue our in-depth exploration of anarchism in Chile. While our last episode sought to provide context and history, this episode delves into two recent cases of repression by the Chilean State against anarchists and discusses the important of prisoner support in the anarchist movement. We interview Victor Montoya, an anarchist who was framed up and spent 16 months in pretrial detention, as well as Luciano “Tortuga” Pitronello, a comrade who faced terrorism charges after a bomb he was carrying prematurely detonated. While Tortuga’s body was damaged in the course of this ordeal, his spirit remains resilient, and he shares inspiring stories and sage advice over vegan sandwiches at the autonomous library Sante Geronimo Caserio in Santiago. We’ll offer a review of the Chicago Conspiracy, a documentary film which illustrates some of Chile’s radical history and present through music, celebration, memory and riot, tackle some thoughtful listener feedback about democracy and anarchy, and top it all off with news from struggles around the globe.

You can download this and all of our previous episodes online. You can also subscribe in iTunes here or just add the feed URL to your podcast player of choice. Rate us on iTunes and let us know what you think, or send us an email to podcast@crimethinc.com. You can also call us 24 hours a day at 202–59-NOWRK, that is, 202–596–6975.

The final hours of our fundraising campaign for To Change Everything are upon us. This is your last chance to help us get this project off the ground.

Since our last announcement, we’ve confirmed translations in several more languages and arranged a separate printing of the English version for the UK and Europe. Programmers from Oregon to São Paulo are coding the websites; collectives from Russia to Maharlika (the so-called Philippines) are finalizing their versions of the video and text. This project is going to be even more ambitious than we’d originally planned, spanning twenty groups in as many countries.

On our end of the organizing, the missing piece is that we have not yet raised enough money to produce a full-quality Spanish version for North America. We hope that in the remaining hours, enough last-minute donations will come in for us to finance this.

Thanks so much to all of you for making this project possible. If you’ve already donated, or can’t afford to, please just pass on word of this to others. We’ll be excited to put this at your disposal shortly!

#29: Anarchism in Chile, Part I: From Popular Power to Social War – It’s been a busy fall here at the Ex-Worker podcast: demos, illnesses, and catastrophes of all sorts have slowed us down, but can’t stop us! Against the odds, we’ve returned with our 29th episode, the first of a two-episode series exploring anarchism in Chile. From its roots in the popular power of the Allende years and militant resistance to the Pinochet dictatorship to today’s clashes between encapuchados and Carabineros across burning barricades, we explore the history and background context necessary to understand the distinctive and militant anarchist struggles of contemporary Chile. From the recent anarchist book and propaganda fair in Santiago, several anarchists speak with us about the importance of radical neighborhoods, the evolution of public anarchist organizing, and political imprisonment in Chile. And as if that wasn’t enough, we’ve also got a report-back from the marches and actions of New York City Climate Convergence, with several interviewees reporting on their experiences and sharing their reflections on how anarchists connect to broader environmental movements. Listeners weigh in on historical dates, pronunciation mistakes, and mind-controlled drones, and a big helping of news plus events and prisoner birthdays puts the icing on the cake. (more…)

For many months now, we’ve been hard at work on a new anarchist outreach project that picks up where Fighting for Our Lives left off—drawing on everything we’ve learned since then and updating the contents and format. Now that work is completed—we just need your help to get it into the world.

To Change Everything is a full-color 48-page booklet. In fresh, accessible language, it explores the virtues of self-determination, illuminates why authoritarian power structures cannot resolve the crises they produce, and discusses how to weave our personal revolts together into a collective struggle for liberation.

We want to print 100,000 copies and circulate it for free, so as to reach the generations radicalized by the global movements and catastrophes of the past few years. We’ve worked with Submedia.tv to produce an accompanying video; we’re coordinating with comrades around the world so the text will appear simultaneously on at least three continents in at least a dozen languages. The video and text will be available in all those languages on a fully responsive website. With your help, we can accomplish all this by the end of 2014. (more…)

Back in Episode 26, theEx-Worker shared a panorama of dramatic stories from the lives and struggles of 19th and early 20th century anarchist women… but we didn’t focus much on their ideas. In the second episode of our three-part series on anarcha-feminism, we return our focus to the first generations of rebels who brought together anarchist and feminist currents, this time to explore their distinctive revolutionary visions. We survey the context of early revolutionary and feminist ideas, and the distinct perspectives of early anarcha-feminists on marriage, sexuality, economic and bodily autonomy, suffrage, revolutionary sexism, and strategies for women’s emancipation. The Chopping Block discusses Free Women of Spain, Martha Ackelsberg’s classic study of the Spanish anarchist women’s group Mujeres Libres. Listeners weigh in on sports, a special guest contributor offers a correction about indigenous resistance to fracking, and we begin a fascinating conversation on solidarity actions and anonymity amidst the news, event announcements, statements from political prisoners, and more.

Trigger warning: This episode includes a few passing references to sexual or domestic violence: nothing too graphic, but we wanted to give all of you a heads up. The references appear at 11:40, 35:50, 41:25, 1:04:50, and 1:33:44.

You can download this and all of our previous episodes online. You can also subscribe in iTunes here or just add the feed URL to your podcast player of choice. Rate us on iTunes and let us know what you think, or send us an email topodcast@crimethinc.com. You can also call us 24 hours a day at 202–59-NOWRK, that is, 202–596–6975.

Thursday, May 29th at 7:00 PMInternationalist Books and Community Center

Cindy Crabb will be reading from the brand new Doris 31, joined by local zine writers. Check back for updates on what other writers will be joining the event!
Cindy Crabb has been writing the influential, internationally distributed, autobiographical-feminist zine Doris since the early ‘90’s. In it, she explores subjects like consent, feminism, abortion, death, self-image, creativity, shyness, queer identity, addiction, punk and anarchism. Crabb is the editor of the zines Support and Learning Good Consent. She lives in South-East Ohio with her miniature horses, plays in the punk band Snarlas, and is a sexual abuse survivor advocate.

“…zines are a space where third wave feminist theory is emerging, and many scholars don’t recognize this because they don’t read zines. They should read Doris.” -Alison Piepmeier, Author of Girl Zines: Making Media, Doing Feminism (more…)

Some radicals believe the internet prefigures a decentralized utopia; others foresee a new digital feudalism of total management and surveillance. In our long-awaited thirteenth episode of the Ex-Worker, Clara and Alanis take on the recent CrimethInc. feature “Deserting the Digital Utopia,” teasing out some of the limitations and possibilities of resistance that engages with digital technologies. A supporter of imprisoned radical hacker Jeremy Hammond discusses his anti-authoritarian politics and the military, corporate, police, and intelligence agencies he targeted with his hacks. Listeners lambast us on our grievous gaffe from last episode, sketchy cops and masked marchers populate the news, and we announce an anarchist primer competition (even if we can’t agree on how to pronounce it).